David Bowker

Parts of this novel feel like they were pulled right out of my life. The story of a Bond fan growing up in the north of England in the seventies, going to see 007 at the cinema with his father. A father who years later suffered a debilitating stroke. Rediscovering Fleming later in life. Facing the emotional roller-coaster of having a child born with a heart-defect who had to undergo major surgery, and more parallels that I won’t go into.

The story uses the protagonist’s obsession with the worlds of Bond to explore his growing awareness of what he needs to do as a parent. The author really knows his Fleming both in terms of content and style, although at some points the fantasy world of 007 that the main character evokes go a little too far.

A interesting, and deeply personal, piece of Bond related prose.… (meer)

This was a weird combination of a gangster novel and an old-fashioned English ghost story. And it works, but it doesn’t really start working until the appearance of a dour, frightening hitman named Raghead (which is another nickname for the Bogeyman, by the way). He is sent to whack the main character, a midlist horror writer who was commissioned to ghost-write the autobiography of the area’s most notorious mobster and instead pissed him off. But the writer and the hitman turn out to be childhood friends who bonded over M.R. James stories, so Raghead spares him and hides him in the spooky haunted house where he lives. That’s when the story starts getting very strange, and also much more interesting. But beware: this novel is also a rip-roaring horror tale, and therefore not intended for the squeamish.… (meer)

For Struggling Author Billy Dye, ghostwriting the memoirs of Manchester gangster Malcolm Priest seems like a great way to make a quick buck, but when Priest tires of the wiry writer he hires a vicious hit-man to take him out. When the assassin – named Rawhead- turn out to be a school friend he hasn’t seen in years, Billy’s like is spared and the killer vows to protect him. As tension mounts and the bodies pile up, Billy discovers that his friend is a terrifying psychopath who will stop at nothing to defend him. And when Rawhead takes an interest in Billy’s career, no one- not even in the publishing world- is safe. Violent, face-paced and hilarious, the novel builds to a stunning climax that will jolt even the most jaded suspense reader and leave them breathless.’ In the end, Billy decides to end it himself. After setting fire to the past literally and starting a normal life, Billy thinks it is done. But is it really? Rawhead returns? Maybe. A true British gangster book, with outlandish characters, almost Dick Tracy-ish, and extreme amounts of violence. It was nice to see a different setting and group of characters from the normal London set. Colorful dialogue and some funny zingers. The plot is fun for a read but rather thin and in some parts one can see through it easily.… (meer)